The number of people here with no religion increased by a whopping 73% to over 480,000 between 2011 and 2016, the latest Census data revealed today.

And 10% of people in Ireland identied as being atheist or agnostic - someone who is sceptical, cynical or unsure - compared to 277,237 or 6% previously.

The average age of a person with ‘no religion’ was 34 and students had the largest response of any segment of Irish society to the option at over 15%.

Meanwhile, the ratio of Catholics here fell from 84.2% to 78.3% during the same period and TV star Kevin McGahern said the current generation have been “let down”.

Kevin McGahern

The comedian and former RTE Republic Of Telly host told the Irish Mirror: “A lot of people of my generation anyway would feel let down by the church’s actions and reactions and how they dealt with those problems as well.

“I was part of the first generation that stopped being a part of it, but it was the same with civil war politics.

“It’s the same generation [divide]. My father and his father before him would have followed the same political party, whereas our generation was the first one to realise that there’s no difference between any of them.

“And in the same way that there isn’t really any difference between any religions. They’ve a lot more in common than they have separating them.”

Kevin said the way some ‘religious’ people lived their lives, the abuse scandals and the Tuam Mother and Baby Home atrocity was also a wake-up call.

He said: “There’s been a big religious decline over the last 20 years across the world as we all get connected. I think it’s part of a steady decline towards no religion.

“The Government here played a huge part in the abuses of the church by allowing it to happen. It’s probably another reason why people are disillussioned as well.

“The Tuam Mother and Baby Home scandal was horrific.”

Kevin said there was no respect for human life or human dignity.

The 30 year-old married Siobhan Cassidy in their native Co Cavan last month and they opted for a civil ceremony.

Other notable Census figures confirmed that some 12% of the Catholics here were born outside Ireland, according to the Census figures.

Meanwhile the proportion of Muslim and Jewish people here increased by 28.9%.

The number of Muslims in Ireland rose from 49,204 to 63,443, while there were 2,557 Jews here last year- an increase of 573 over the five-year period.

The Census confirmed over four in 10 of Ireland’s Muslims (43.5%) lived in Dublin city and the surrounding suburban area last year.

Meanwhile, the number of travellers here increased by 5.1% to just under 31,000, while almost 60% of those were aged under 25, compared with just 33.4% of the general population, according to Census data.

There were just 451 Traveller men and 481 Traveller women aged 65 and over.

Other notable results in relation to Travellers showed that in April last year 31.9% of the ethnic minority group were married, compared to just over one in 20 (5.8%) of the general population.

The divorce rate was less than half of the general population at 2.2% compared to 4.7%.